The present disclosure relates to a recording head recovery system having an ink ejection surface in which an ink ejection ports are formed so as to eject ink to a recording medium such as a paper sheet, a head cleaning mechanism, and an inkjet recording apparatus including the same.
As a recording apparatus such as a facsimile, a copier, or a printer, an inkjet recording apparatus that forms images by ejecting ink is widely used because it can form a high definition images.
In this inkjet recording apparatus, micro ink droplets (hereinafter referred to as mist) ejected together with ink droplets for recording images and rebound mist generated when the ink droplets are adhered to the recording medium may be adhered and fixed to the ink ejection surface of the recording head. As the mist on the ink ejection surface is gradually increased and overlaps the ink ejection ports, deterioration of ink ejection straightness (bending flying), non-ejection, or the like may occur, so that printing performance of the recording head is deteriorated.
Therefore, in order to clean the ink ejection surface of the recording head, there is known an inkjet recording apparatus in which a plurality of cleaning liquid supply ports are disposed in a part outside the ink ejection region in which a plurality of ink ejection ports are formed (a part on an upstream side in a wiping direction of a wiper) in the ink ejection surface. In this inkjet recording apparatus, after supplying cleaning liquid from the cleaning liquid supply ports, the wiper is moved along the ink ejection surface from outside of the cleaning liquid supply port, so that the wiper can wipe the ink ejection surface while holding the cleaning liquid. In this way, a recording head recovery process can be performed.